During a basketball game last Tuesday between Grove High School and Forest City Highschool, a racist conversation took place during a radio commercial break, which was captured and broadcast online. The exchange was between longtime broadcaster of Forest City athletics, Orin Harris, and board operator and third-grade teacher at Forest City Elementary School, Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt.
As of now, both of them have been fired. After noticing the presence of a variety of Hispanic and Latino-sounding last names in Grove High School’s list of players, the broadcasters first commented on there being a lot of “Español people.”
They continue to jive on the subject matter, “wondering why” there are so many and stating how they’ve “gradually worked their way in.” The height of the matter is reached when Orin Harris mentions President Donald Trump, stating, “As Trump would say, go back to where they came from.”
“Well, some would say that, yeah, some days I feel like that too,” said Kusserow-Smidt. Wright County, where Eagle Grove High School is located, was 11.4 percent Latino in 2016, a number which is estimated to reach 32 percent by 2050. On the other hand, 5 percent of the Forest City population is Latino.
Eagle Grove Superintendent, Jess Toliver, found the broadcast comments disappointing. He was called Tuesday evening by Forest City Superintendent Darwin Lehmann regarding the broadcast.
Lehman and the KIOW manager would later phone Toliver to apologize. KIOW radio sent letters to both schools apologizing for the incident and later released a public statement.
On Tuesday, November 28th, two employees of KIOW made comments that were insensitive, thoughtless and degrading to others. These comments were deplorable, and the staff and management of KIOW in no way condone or supports these comments.
These comments never aired on KIOW Radio. They did, however, appear on a video feed that appeared on a school website.
That night when we learned of these comments, we were in contact with the Eagle Grove School District and gathered information about the incident. On Thursday morning, November 30, a letter of apology was sent to school officials, along with details of our actions in regards to the two employees involved.
As a result, both employees have been fired from their positions with the station.
KIOW Radio has a long history of promoting and supporting student-athletes, coaches, and schools. As a company, we take great pride in spotlighting the great efforts of our local citizens, schools, and communities, and we will demand that all company employees adhere to this policy.
That this kind of dialogue, unacceptable in any situation, emerged from grown-ups in a professional setting and made about high school kids, none the less, is shocking. The measures taken by KIOW and Forest City Highschool were certainly appropriate ones.
This article was inspired by CBS SPORTS // Iowa high school sports broadcasters fired after racist on-air comments